1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing technology, in particular, to an information processing method which processes a plurality of tasks in parallel and an information processing apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the field of information processing apparatuses, a multi-task function is generally employed, wherein a plurality of programs are simultaneously read into the memory and processed, while changing a plurality of tasks corresponding thereto. A plurality of tasks are scheduled for each time slice by an OS (Operating System) which performs basic controls over an information processing apparatus, and are processed by a processor based on a result of scheduling.
When a task, while being processed by an processor, has a need to access to an I/O (input/output) device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), the task releases the processor so that processing of another task scheduled can be started. When a time slice assigned to a certain task expires, the task is replaced by the next task.
On the other hand, when transferring data to and from external I/O devices, etc., such as writing/reading out data into/from an HDD, or transferring data via a network, or the like, the data is often to be written after being formatted into a form that is suitable for each of the I/O device, or the data in such form is often returned to a standard format after being read out. Such data formatting is generally performed by driver software offered along with an I/O device, or by a communication protocol. Because of this, an activation request for driver software or the like is made by processing of a task of general application software, and the driver software formats data and so forth in response thereto, then controls I/O operations. Conventionally, the processes are distributed in this way.